Ticking some boxes

Posted on 04/09/2015 by atelieroursonne

It has been a busy week and I have been able to finish a few things on my list, for example I managed to finish the cardigan for my auntie…. well, except for the buttons. I did buy some but I am not sure if I like them. I bought them without taking the cardigan which is never a clever idea. We will see. Oh, and baby blanket no 1 is only missing 3 squares. And lots of sewing I guess.

I also made a beautiful knight’s costume but that really deserves its own post. I am not sure if it is a good sign that some mothers attending the best birthday party ever (Really. No fights. No interfering needed.) thought that the fabric of the helmet would make a beautiful skirt.

You’ll soon be able to form your own opinion, as – much to my surprise – the knight was actually wearing the costume for about 5 min! On the same day he got it! Who would have thought?! Certainly not I.

And I have not only finished some of the yoga bags, I have even already sent them on their long journey to Austrian country side.

I have finished two of the waterproof ones, I just looove these fabrics and I so want to make a bag for myself out of the brown one:

On my last trip back home I have also finally realised that the local taste is more subtle, not quite as loud, colour mixing and childish as mine (It only took me about 38 years to realise) so I attempted to create some more tone in tone, maybe slightly more sporty, even manly ones rather than cute flowery playful ones. Oh, well, I did try but see for yourself.

For the next one I used a very special fabric that I have in my treasure box since a few years. It is a precious, very expensive left over Marimekko fabric and I was wondering for years what I could use this rather thin stripe for. It was just enough for two very special yoga bags and I do hope that they will find a lovely and caring new owner 🙂

One of them is on it’s way to Yogastueble in Austria:

And the other one is actually in my etsy shop:

I have also made one “traditional” one, which is on its way to Austria.

It is really interesting, sometimes when I choose the fabrics for a new bag, I might not be too keen on the combination initially (when I try to suit somebody else’s taste rather than making something for me), finding it maybe too “boring”, like the green one, which is the most tone in tone bag I have ever produced. But then, when it is finished, I really like it. The green one is now almost my favourite (but please don’t tell anybody). I say almost because if I had to chose between the Marimekko one and the green one, then I would still go for the Marimekko I guess 🙂

But enough of the yoga bags for now. Tomorrow we will have to attend a Peter Pan themed birthday party where we are asked to come as a pirate and a Tiger Lily. I had to google the latter. And the pirate told me already that he does not want to be a scruffy pirate. Not sure what a smartly dressed pirate looks like but in any case I do not want to spend too much time on costumes for a one off event. I will keep you updated though.

Scrap Sunday: Personalised mismatch

Posted on 06/07/2015 by atelieroursonne

It might not quite be Sunday anymore where this post gets written but that is the beauty of the www. It is still Sunday somewhere. And it really isn’t my fault. I couldn’t publish this earlier as I hadn’t handed it over yet.

Anyway, I finally made a bag for a very good friend. She didn’t get anything for her birthday this year as no one over the age of 10 did because I had been so busy with other things. So I thought, now that I have more time again, I will make her a little present for her doula “graduation”.

I have tried to chose fabrics in colours that she would like. Not easy as I only seem to own very bright colours (in case you haven’t noticed yet) and she loves subtle green-turquoisey colours. Seriously, this is the best I could do.

For the inside I took a different approach. I wanted to create a more personal feeling and was looking for a calendula theme in my stash. Initially I was thinking of the fabric of the dress I made last year.

I think those flowers would have been perfect calendulas (not from a scientific point of view) but also far too big for the inside of a rather small bag.

So this is what I chose.

It really really doesn’t go at all with the outside fabrics but as I said, it was for personal reasons. Not sure, if she understood that these are meant to be calendulas but she will now 🙂

And then, as matching the fabrics didn’t matter anymore I looked for another souvenir type of fabric and decided on the strawberry fabric that will remind her of my children.

Mega mismatch mission completed 🙂

Scrap Sunday: Back to the roots

Posted on 14/06/2015 by atelieroursonne

This used to be a blog about knitting and it really is time to go back to its origins. I haven’t given up on knitting yet, don’t worry. In fact I am mainly working on the second attempt of a baby blanket for my niece. The first one got lost in the mail…. or shipped to Australia rather than Austria. So maybe there is now a cute baby kangaroo who had lost its mum wrapped up nicely in that blanket.

36 squares out of 49 are already done so I can soonish show you a result, before investing in the extra costs for guaranteed delivery.

For now, it will be a small scrap project, a knitted phone case.

Do you remember when I made a christmas present which was roughly 3 months delayed? A rather beautiful bag with lining and lots of pockets?

This time I made a birthday present for the same person, two weeks early. So I thought the logic asks for something really small 🙂 Also due to the stress and lack of time of the last few months, I had cancelled all birthday presents, my own parents included. So actually getting a small phone case meant quite a lot I guess.

I had once written a pattern for very simple phone cases, a bit intended as knit and purl and joining pieces practise for my knitting students. For this phone case I used the same idea, but I made a much more advanced version with a flap and a stretchy lining. I also made it bigger as the original Balduin was done for my own phone which is – these days at last – on the small side. I wonder if I should add the big version and the flap to the original pattern. Hmm.

Colourwise I meant to keep the colour scheme of the lining of the Christmas bag which was red and orange but I do wonder now if that wasn’t a bit silly as clearly it will be hard to find in a sea of red and orange.

The lining of the phone case had to be a contrasting colour, obviously. Unfortunately I had no nice small patterned jersey in my boxes so plain blue it was.

As we are already talking about knitting, I will have to knit two other baby blankets in the next month…. 2015 will be another big baby year in our family. Then a little baptism cardigan for my niece and future goddaughter most likely using a pattern by Georgie Hallam, I just love her designs. And I was thinking of another jumper for me. I have realised that the past year I have basically been wearing two jumpers whenever a clean one was required and both were knitted. Basically, I had one for winter

and one for summer.

I have already since a while downloaded another pattern from atelier alfa, another very cool designer and I have already invested hours (well, minutes really) into choosing colour combinations however, knowing that I will be covered in baby vomit for another winter, I don’t think I will wear precious hand knitted jumpers that often, unless I used different shades of cream of course 🙂

Scrap Sunday: Keep your belongings with you

Posted on 07/06/2015 by atelieroursonne

Whilst I was rather quiet online I had still been busy making rather quick birthday gifts. So here is a series of small bags, two are made out of waterproof fabric, the one in the middle is made of various cottons. I guess the waterproof ones aren’t exactly scrap fabrics as I have still so much stored of those two that we can hardly call it scrap. The pure cotton one however is cut from rather small pieces of scrap as are all the pocket and lining pieces of the other two.

All have nice patterned cotton lining and two pockets, one with a elastic band on top for more security and one with a zip, big enough for a mobile phone. And obviously another fabric behind that zip 🙂 I might be unable to use the same fabric for all the lining.

So we have red hearts on white and white hearts on red….

crazy butterflies (I love that one but think it would be too much as a main fabric, so perfect as lining) and more subtle flowers …

and my current favourite: orange with dandelion pattern and the crazy butterflies. I think the orange looks particularly great with the outer pink. I had ordered a remnant for a skirt for myself and well, once it arrived, I realised that it wouldn’t really be suitable for a grown up skirt. But it is perfect for linings.

For all three bags I ironed a fleece on the lining which gives it a really nice feel and interfacing on the outer fabric. (loosely following instructions from the Bag Bible) The first two ones turned out too stiff I think. Particularly the cotton one doesn’t actually look great. The natural creases (after turning it inside out) come out much more with that interfacing (which is meant to be medium weight).

For the last one I have invested in some fancy Vilene interfacing and it is just so much nicer. I am not sure if it is because it is woven or because it is a better brand or because it is in fact lighter than the other one but the result is definitely much better.

For all three, I have used hook and loop fastening to close the main flap and I think it fits the purpose but I really need to work on my positioning as the last bag was actually not even closable 🙂

Atelier Oursonne

handmade for you

Category Archives: bags

Ticking some boxes

Scrap Sunday: Personalised mismatch

Scrap Sunday: Back to the roots

Scrap Sunday: Keep your belongings with you